Regrets and Reasons
by Kissufication
Summary: One day, Sakura is gone and the only thing she left is a letter for Ino. But as her best friend, Ino can't sit down and do nothing. When it is revealed that Sakura is with Akatsuki, will Ino go after her or stay home? Sakurax?, Inox?; T for fighting.
1. Prologue

Prologue – Can you understand me?

* * *

_Ino,_

_Maybe you're upset. Maybe you're literally freaking out right now. Maybe, you think that I'm absolutely stupid and crazy for not returning to Konoha although I'm not forced to stay here._

_I'm sure it sounds like a real bad excuse to you but I'm staying here just because of Naruto. If you're thinking that I'm totally insane, than you are – of course – right but my plan is really not the worst. I think. I'll explain it if you keep reading, okay? I'm planning to save Naruto after they've taken the Kyuubi out of him, which they want to do soon if they are able to cath him. Perhaps this betrayal against Konoha won't be necessary. I hope you know that I, too, hope I won't have to rescue Naruto while they're removing the Kyuubi but if they do so, I will be here. And however, I will stop him from dying._

_For Naruto's sake I couldn't care less what will happen to me after all, as long as he is then alive and once more back in Konoha._

_Trying to protect him when his greatest burden is taken away after a life of so much pain, sorrow, fear and disrespect from others – this is something I owe him. He has always tried to protect me, to make me notice, understand him. I can't just watch and do nothing while there is an organisation wanting to kill him._

_You know, how he is... Loving, caring, smiling all the time and so.. pure in the way he is trusting and believing in people – even when they have done terrible things._

_He may not understand why I am doing this and I beg you now, Ino.. Don't tell him that I am only here to be his last chance when everything else did not work. Please, Ino. You are my best friend and I trust you in this matter. Don't spin around after reading this letter and running to Tsunade or Hinata or Shikamaru or Kakashi showing it. Even not to your parents or any other civilist. You have to destroy it and you must not speak of this ever again._

_I couldn't live with the mistake of bringing my friends into any kind of danger because of me and my plans._

_Please feel special, Ino, that I rely upon you. I can't tell you where I am now, at this very moment, but I'm okay. I hope you're well, too. Hopefully, my efforts will be enough to stay alive until all the fights and wars are over and we can finally meet again. Although we then will be enemies or I will be your prisoner. Please never forget, my thoughts of you will always be like the one you have for a sister. _

_I somehow managed to sneak out of the base and I am sure, they will notice that I'm gone in the next few minutes. But I'm just giving this to Chou, a hawk who will bring you this letter and with a tiny bit of luck they won't see me entering the base again._

_Oh, yeah, I nearly forgot. Can you keep Chou, please? He can't return because Pain-sama or someone else would notice him when he's trying to find his way back to me. _

_I love you so much. That you mustn't forget._

_Can you understand me now? I hope so._

_Sakura_

Her heart pounded strongly against her chest and she could almost feel her throat go dry. What on earth was Sakura doing? She was betraying her village, staying with Akatsuki... But why? Why? Why? Desperately, Ino chewed on her thumbnail while she absently crushed the paper of the letter in her hand. She never could show this to Tsunade and if Sakura were here, she would definitely rip Ino's head off her shoulders for the simple thought of not following the instructions the rosette gave her.

But Sakura _was_ not here and that fact drove Ino crazy. Her best friend stayed with a bunch of mass murders while she stayed in the nice and safe Konoha. Well protected and with everything she could possibly need.

It would only be a little amount of time, until the elders or the ANBU or Tsunade herself would find out that Sakura was still with Akatsuki. Ino stood up from her bed and went to her chest of drawers. The mirror on top was a present from Sakura and as she took it in her right hand, she sniffed helplessly. Ino had really no idea what to do and she worried also for the life of her friend.

Even if Sakura could safe Naruto, what would happen next?

For the betrayal against Konoha, Tsunade would definitely punish the rosette. The elders would leave the Hokage no choice because Sakura allied herself with the most dangerous group of s-rank-shinobi since the end of the first World War. And that war had been fought more than a hundred years ago.

"Oh, Sakura," Ino whispered against the mirror. "What have you done?" She suddenly became aware of the letter in her left hand again. "Can you understand me?" had Sakura asked. The answer was: No, she couldn't. Naruto was so very important for the Haruno that the blonde Kunoichi had known before. But that she would even betray her own village and team up with the Akatsuki.. Sakura was alone there. Alone in a house – or in whatever these cruel shinobis lived – with mass murders.

Ino shrugged as she only thought of one possible thing that could happen to her friend.

Despite of the thoughtful and worried face Ino had put on, the hawk Sakura send made a silent shriek as if he planned to calm his new blonde owner down. "What do you want?"said Ino with a sparkle in her light, blue eyes and watched the bird almost suspiciously. The hawk stared back at her with a look in his eyes like he could understand what she just said. Then he shrieked again, only a bit louder than before. The blonde took instinctively a step back. "I'm talking with birds... Nuts. I'm totally nuts now!" Her fist flew in the air and it seemed for a moment like she was hitting an invisible person. "Thanks to you, Sakura! Damn it," she cursed and then threw the letter on the floor.

Chou was obviously not satisfied with her reaction to his shrieks, so he spread his wings and titled his head to his left side. He looked like he wanted to ask: "Why don't you do something?"

Ino decided to rather watch the sun go down behind the great, thick wall around Konoha, then to comment the strange behaviour of her new pet. But in her mind, she knew that the bird was "right". She had to do something. The thought of a lonely Sakura in a dirty, little cell, surrounded by Akatsuki, made her so uneasy and worried that she couldn't even try to think of something else.

Behind her, Chou shrieked again loudly – this time because she paid attention to the view and not to him but even if Ino was willing to care for the hawk, at the moment she was far too distracted.

Actually, there were three solutions for her mess:

Number one; she destroyed the letter, like Sakura said, ignored her worries and tried her best to care for the people in Konoha.

Number two; she showed the letter to Tsunade, watched her friend being put in the bingo book and hunted like the criminal she would be the next time a shinobi from Konoha would meet her.

Or, number three; she abandoned her village, her friends – like Sakura did before – followed the hawk to Akatsuki and joined. Well.. More like, _tried_ to join and would be working with her friend.

Solution number three seemed most attractive to Ino because it was the only way she wouldn't have to fight against her friend one day. It was one thing to fight against your childhood friend but another thing, if you fought against someone who you knew almost better then you knew yourself. On the other hand she would really share the same destiny as Sakura. Being taken into the bingo book, being hunted or arrested someday.

"That way," Ino mumbled "It'll be better.. I could never arrest Pinky.." Ino slowly reached out to the floor and took the letter back in her hand and then put it into her pocket. Faster than she had picked up the letter, she packed a few unimportant and every important thing she could think of into a small backpack and put her kunai, shuriken and senbon into the right places.

"Chou", she cooed gentle and the hawk sailed elegantly through the air. He landed on her shoulder and his claws clung onto the material of her shirt. She proved thoroughly if she had anything she might need and then opened the window.

Ino knew that she wouldn't have any regrets at all – she wasn't the kind of girl that _regretted_ something – but she felt a slight tingle of sadness. Leaving her parents and the few really good friends she had behind made her sigh. But it had to be. They all had each other but Sakura had nobody at the moment and that felt bad. Really bad.

The Yamanaka suppressed her chakra to the slightest possible sign and jumped out of her window, leaving it half open. She landed silently on her feet and glanced at the clock around her wrist. The guard at the south entrance took a nap at six every day and slept until quarter past. She had five minutes left to sneak out of the village unseen and rushed through the bush, without looking back at her now old home.

She could still go back. But she certainly wouldn't.

* * *

Over fifty miles away watched the rosette kunoichi, who made her best friend abandon her village only one or two seconds ago, the sky. Or rather what one could see. Big, grey clouds hid the blue colour, cold and icy rain, which gave the country she was in its name, fell down and made the air thick and more cool then it usually would have been.

"Was writing the letter a good idea?" she asked herself and tipped with her fingers a strange rhythm on the wooden window-sill. Her green eyes watched the raindrops fall and with an almost nervous look on her face, she combed through her rosette hair. "I wonder.. what she is doing.."

Sakura Haruno put her hand over her eyes and tried to relax. If she had known at that moment, what Ino _was_ doing, she would probably have jumped out of the window. Without chakra, from the third floor.

But she would hear of it soon enough.

_To be continued..._

* * *

Hello, folks!

This is Kissufication.. :D (Obviously..)

Well.. after this one year I've been at I've finally decided to write my own little Naruto-story.. I'm very proud of it altough it maybe isn't really good. So I thought, I just try.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto (and don't earn money with this story.)

I would love to think what you guys think of the prologue and perhaps, if you like, what you would have done. (If you were Ino/Sakura. :3)

Have a nice day!


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1 – A whole bath tub of problems

* * *

Her feet hurt like she had just walked over the sharp pieces of a broken mirror. Ino had run for hours now and she would keep running until she had left the fire country. She had run out of water a few hours ago and she sensed a little village five or six miles ahead. The villagers were most likely citizens but just in case not she completely erased her chakra signature.

"Chou, would you please wait for me at the northern entrance? A girl with a hawk on her shoulder is a bit extraordinary for normal people," she begged her pet when the village came in sight. The bird made a silent sound and then flew ahead to wait for his owner.

Her blue eyes followed him until the hawk disappeared behind the trees. "He sure is clever," the blonde kunoichi mused satisfied as if it was thanks to her, "I have to get him something like a present.." Ino had no idea what hawks were eating but she thought that meat would be good enough.

There was no guard at the southern gate and after she thought about that fact once more, it made sense. A city full of farmers and sellers didn't really need guards who controlled passengers.

Ino walked through the entrance and passed by a group of little boys who were playing with a ball. They watched her with the innocent curiosity of children and she looked back at them only for a few seconds – because they _were_ staring at her after all – and then wanted to enter the first shop on the street.

One of the boys however, tugged at her violet skirt and she looked down. _Damn it_, she thought _I didn't see him coming. And he's just a little kid! I need to be far more careful!_ The kid had big, brown eyes and spiky black hair. His clothes were dirty at the knees and elbows and old. "Are you totally new here?" he asked and looked her up and down, "Cause this is my family's shop and Toosan and Jiichan don't like strange passengers cause the last one killed the Kaachan of Momo-chan!" The boy pointed to a slim kid that stood behind him and probably was the mentioned "Momo-chan". At the second look, Ino noticed that the plain kid in trousers and shirt was a girl. She looked sad and uncomfortable and the mention of her mother's death.

"Well, I'm up to nothing bad and I just need water and maybe something to eat, sunny. I'm off before you memorize the colour of my clothes, I promise." The boy shrugged his shoulders and let go of her skirt. He nodded like he had given her his permission and she entered the shop.

The old man put a grumpy face on as he didn't recognize her at once. "What do you want, girl?" he asked unfriendly and seemed eager to get rid of her again soon. Ino's eye twitched and she could barely control her uprising anger. This stupid villager – civilian even – treated her like some kind of bug! Just because there had been one passenger who was dangerous! "I need two bottles of water, please," she begged and tried to make her voice sound gentle and smooth. The old man watched her warily and slowly longed into a refrigerator behind him. "You have money?" He obviously wouldn't move any further until she would give him an answer. But the said answer didn't find a way out through her clenched teeth and she wouldn't force it any more. She managed a nod without using her kunai to draw a new design on the table between them.

These suspicious glares that he shot to her.. They certainly would drive her crazy!

He placed the bottles on the table in front of him and she laid the money beside them. "Here you go," she hissed and snapped the bottles off the table. "If you keep on being so suspicious and unfriendly, I hope your shop runs out of money!" Ino spun around and left the shop with an angry snort.

Outside the shop, she murmured some curses and glared daggers at the shop-door. She took her backpack on, noticed that the boys were gone and then jogged the main road along until she reached the northern walls. The moment she left the village behind and entered the darker and cooler woods, Chou appeared out of nowhere and drugged his claws a bit too far into her shirt on the right shoulder. A loud "Ouch!" escaped her and she tipped the bird against its chest. "Stupid Hawk," Ino complained and puffed her cheeks slightly.

Three hours later, the air she breathed was much more cooler. She had left the fire country two hours ago and was now in the country of grass. Chou had led her this way and she trusted him because Sakura did, too. Without him she wouldn't dare travelling through grass because there were no big trees for hiding. Only thin ones and high grass. At second thought, travelling in grass was a good idea thanks to the fact that fire country and grass were quarrelling about some secret and very important business. So not a single konoha-nin would cross her way.

Ino looked at the sky. It was coloured in a violet and dark blue colour while at the horizon in a mix between dark red, light pink and honey-like orange. "Maybe we need to get a room, huh?" Chou shrieked and changed his flying direction to the right side. She sensed the group of people a few hundred miles ahead and was once more glad, she had Chou with her.

* * *

Her toes barely touched the edge of the bath tub. The water had nearly run out of warmth but it felt good to relax a bit. She hold a medical scroll in her hands and studied the little kanji that were written all over the old paper. The text was very difficult but also interesting and she hadn't thought that Akatsuki would have these rare jutsu – or rather any medical things at all.

Describing Sakura's actual mood in three words.. Those words would be: completely at ease. Only for the moment, though.

Well.. she _was_ at ease until a loud crash and angry shouts destroyed the peaceful silence in her bath tub.

"DEIDARA!!" That voice.. was Sasori's. She could tell that with one ear deaf and the other one gone. "I just wanted to," the blonde nuke-nin protested but was cut off by the redhead. "Wanted to what? Destroy the clothes I made for her? Or just destroy _everything _in her room?!" Sakura heard Deidara stumble over his own words and then say something along the lines of "It was an accident, Danna". Angry steps were heard through the thin wooden door, which separated the main room and the little bath and Sakura decided quickly that she should wrap a towel around herself.

Being seen naked by one nuke-nin who exploded to burn her to ashes and one nuke-nin who she killed along with his grandmother wasn't something she needed to experience. Well, anyway, the fingertips of the rosette _had_ touched the white towel. But in that very moment the bath door opened and Deidara entered – luckily with his back facing her.

Well that fact couldn't change that Sasori had full view. "YOU PERVERTED BASTARDS! HAVEN'T YOU EVER HEARD OF KNOCKING?!" The rosette's screaming nearly crushed the mirror on the wall near the little window to her right and Sasori immediately turned around. Thanks to a reflex, the Haruno had covered herself with the scroll... somehow. Now she grabbed the towel and used it instead of the wet paper.

Deidara had his hands over his eyes when he turned around. Otherwise she would have beaten him up so badly that nobody would ever recognize him again. He said quietly – most likely to calm her rage down a bit – and quiet shy for his character: "Pain-sama wants to see you..." Sakura nodded and then remembered, he couldn't see her, so she added: "Okay, I'm ready in a few minutes." Neither of the Akatsuki moved and she feared to stretch their patience a bit too far if she started shouting again, so she calmed herself down as far as it was possible.

"Would you move out of the bath, please? I have to change." The blonde Akatsuki took a fast step backwards and crashed hard enough against his Danna that they both fell to the floor. "Gosh, you can open your eyes now," Sakura said and suppressed a giggle. "I'm 'dressed'." Sasori pushed his partner off him and looked at her while still sitting on the floor. "A few minutes," he told her monotone and she spun around. "I dare you to say something about my, my.. about me.. Well, I swear to God I'll break every single bone in your body!" He wanted to answer something angrily, but she spat: "You're human again, so this time you're gonna feel the pain when you're cheekbones are being crushed!"

He glared daggers at her but left the room without another word. Deidara was totally forgotten when he made an amused cough. "What are you coughing?", she asked and looked at the clothing on her bed. A black cloak with the characteristic red clouds, the sign of Akatsuki, laid on the bed. Sasori had made it for her and she had shouted at him instead of saying 'Thank you'. "Just adorable how you are treating Sasori no Danna, un. Last time someone's pushing his patience.. Think that was also you with ya creepy talking 'bout friends and family. Told me you said somethin' 'bout the importance of love and rubbish like that in his last minutes, huh?"

Her mouth escaped a mix between a laugh and a sigh. "One more word and you'll kiss the wall." His blue eyes sparkled with a strange joy and he snickered. "As if, Sakura-chan, hm. We both know, if we hurt each other, we'll both be punished by Madara." Sakura's green eyes became thoughtful and she murmured: "Think so, too.. He does hate wasting time, doesn't he?" Deidara turned around, without giving an answer, and slipped through the slightly open door, leaving a distracted rosette kunoichi behind who started to dress herself.

Said few minutes later, Sakura left her room and saw a grinning Deidara and a Sasori who was facing the wall. "Oi, Sakura-chan, you're looking awesome, un," Deidara complimented and waggled his eyebrows. Before the rosette had the opportunity to answer, Sasori grumbled: "You certainly don't deserve it, kunoichi." Deidara's left eye twitched but the grin stayed on his lips.

"I will pretend that I haven't heard what you just said and stick to my plan.. Thank you for this great cloak, Sasori." It was easier to smile at the readhead than she thought it would be. "Nothing to thank for, kunoichi." She felt the need to punch him but Deidara pushed her forward. "Madara is watching us, un," he whispered into her ear from behind and made her shiver.

Sasori watched them suspiciously and seemed to be torn between curiosity and mistrust.

They walked silently and after three times taking a right or left way, Sakura wouldn't find back on her own. Pain-sama's door was very dark, like a big, black spot on the light, brown walls. Sasori knocked and entered, Sakura and then Deidara behind him.

Behind a long desk sat Pain, though his orange hair seemed a bit too bright for the dim light that was spread through the whole room. "Sasori, Deidara. I see, you brought the asked kunoichi. You may sit to both of her sides and listen." The two shinobi sat down on two of three chairs and watched their leader. The blonde one with slight amusement and excitement and the redhead with obviously no patience. "Sakura Haruno. You are hereby an official member of Akatsuki under the rule of Madara Uchiha. Orders given by Madara, Konan or me are to be followed. The other members can, too, give you orders although you don't have to follow them, unless it is requested by one of us. And by us I mean Madara, Konan and me. It is forbidden to speak to one of your foreign allies about matters that include Akatsuki or any other business that may be important to our organization." Pain took a breath and watched the impression on her face.

"Please lay your hitai-ate on the desk."

She felt somehow numb. Slowly she took her hitai-ate from seemingly out-of-nowhere and laid it on the desk. Her fingers were almost – on one way or another – sewed to the red material. The rosette stared at the item and felt a burst of fear.

The moment she would loose the contact to her hitai-ate.. She would be truly a traitor. Forever and until the end of eternity. Her bottom lip trembled slightly, her eyes couldn't let go of the only thing between her life as a proud shinobi of Konoha and her life as the final report for one of her best friends.

"Girl," Pain grunted and she stiffened at the rough sound of his voice. "If you have any _regrets_, it would be better you'd sit down and join some of your dead friends. But you have to decide... _Now_."

Suddenly, her wrist was taken by an unknown hand. The skin was a very light bronze and its grip was strong. The hand pulled her own away and her eyes followed the movements, the arm up, to the shoulder and stared in the face of Sasori. His brown eyes were emotionless and merciless because he held her hand in place until Pain finished the deep scratch over the leaf of Konoha. Luckily, her heart didn't hurt as much as she expected it to but the feeling of Sasori's Hand – holding her own – made it surprisingly easier.

The co-leader of Akatsuki shoved the hitai-ate back to her and with her free hand, Sakura picked it up, eyeing the sign of her betrayal carefully.

Pain closed his eyes and sighed. "Remember everything I've told you so far, Sakura Haruno. Please continue to hold hands outside, take Deidara with you. Leave now." He waved like they would be blown away by it and then started to write something on a blank paper.

The scowl Sasori wore on his face made Sakura uneasy but she still tried to suppress a blush. Outside, his brown left eye began to twitch. "You have regrets?" he asked through gritted teeth and Sakura watched him with a nervous look in her own eyes. "Yes but who wouldn't?" she dared to ask back – her voice tiny and quiet – and Sasori looked like he wanted to slap her. It was pure luck he didn't.

However, he hadn't loose the grip of her hand until they left the office a few minutes ago.

* * *

"What the hell?! Are you kidding me?!?" Ino cursed and punched the robber that tried to steal her money in the face. Though her curses weren't according to the dirty old man but to Chou. He was shrieking loud and nervously and scratched over the robber's face.

With a last hit, the man went unconscious, bloody scratches and at least three heavy bruises appearing on his face. "You're fangs sure are sharp," said the blonde kunoichi and something that reminded her of proud appeared in the dark eyes of the hawk.

Ino jumped onto a thick branch of a nearby tree and Chou followed her. "I wonder," she began and took another a look at the now almost black sky, "If we need to run faster to reach the inn six miles ahead from us until the rain starts." The hawk screeched and made a little nod – so he really _could_ understand her. Ino started to run and hoped that the inns at the edge of the rain country would be better than in grass. She didn't take the one that they passed when they were still in gras because it smelled like they were storing bodies in it. But perhaps, sleeping outside in a cave wasn't as bad as she thought so far. Perhaps.

_To be continued..._

* * *

Hello and good morning! (In Germany it's still early... :D)

So Ino has finally reached Ame.. :S In the next chapter, she will reach Akatsuki.. So you don't have to worry there will be fights and insult..

Because Ino did follow Sakura against her will, didn't she?

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto (and hopefully never will. Too troublesome.)

Hope I see you at the next chapter! If you like, tell me what you think! Thanks to all who've read this far and liked it!

xoxo Kissufication


End file.
